Bridgeton man found guilty of assaulting trooper

By MATT DUNNmdunn@sjnewsco.comBRIDGETON, N.J. -- A 35-year-old Bridgeton resident was found guilty Friday of third-degree aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and third-degree resisting arrest.

During a trial this week, Keith West, of Finlaw Avenue, accused New Jersey State Trooper Augustus Nyekan of assaulting him after Nyekan overheard West use a racial expletive during a 2005 police call to a Fairfield residence where West was caring for a relative's children.

West is white, Nyekan is black.

Nyekan accused West of refusing to comply with his arrest, after West made threatening remarks toward him.

After Nyekan asked West to put his hands behind his back, West allegedly raised his hands into a fighting position, forcing Nyekan to use his mace on the 280-pound man.

During a struggle between Nyekan and West, West suffered an injury to his already-injured back and Nyekan suffered only a scrape to his knee.

Regardless of the lack of serious injury to the state trooper, a 12-person jury found West responsible this week for causing harm to the law enforcement officer.

West faces three to five years in prison when he is sentenced in January.